Friday, March 6, 2015

The Sound Of Music Story : How A Beguiling Young Novice, A Handsome Austrian Captain, And Ten Singing Von Trapp Children Inspired The Most Beloved Film Of All Timeby Tom Santopietro

Having seen "The Sound of Music" so many times, I really thought that a book about making the movie would be very interesting. At times, it was. There's plenty of fascinating trivia, too. But, there's too much information that's really not necessary and then it becomes endless filler. The author writes about what happens to everybody in their lives that was involved with the film after the fact: the director, the screenwriter, the costume designer, the editor, all of the actors, and the von Trapps. It became deadening and the author's prose is quite dry. Because of this book, though, I became fascinated with the von Trapp family and wanted to know more about them. They were not too happy with the film, because it took too many liberties and what was portrayed was not even true. There's another movie that came out before "The Sound of Music" in German (you can watch it on YouTube with English subtitles) that is much more realistic of the von Trapps.
If you're an absolute fan, you will love this book. For the rest of us, it can be skipped.